conveniently constructed, can, with the slight modifications of which its mechanism is susceptible, operate as a machine of Newcomen, or as one of those constructed at Chaillot.'

:

In treating of steam-engines, M. PRONY has adopted three principal divisions of objects for description and discussion. The first contains the detail of experiments, and the description of the apparatus used for determining the expansive force of vapour some useful purposes are also mentioned, to which the results of the experiments may be applied in natural philosophy and the arts. The second division treats of the two systems of the steam-engine of double effect, in which the author endezvours to unite the different variations of which the combination of machines is susceptible; and he has added the detailed description of the engine of Newcomen, and of those constructed since 1780 at Chaillot and Gros Caillou. Finally, the third division presents particular details necessary to those who wish to construct steam-engines; and the principles requisite for calculating their dimensions and effects.

In concluding our account of this work, we must observe that it is one of those which comprehend so great a variety and extent of matter, and require for their accomplishment so great a depth of knowlege, that we have considerable difficulty in believing them to have been effected by a single individual. We must recollect, however, that the pages over which we turn in a few hours, or which we peruse in a few weeks, present the continued accumulation of many years passed in patient and laborious research :-but, if such a recollection withdraws us from the confusion of vague admiration, it will only lead us, in this instance, to a sedate, matured, and defensible approbation.

Whatever, indeed, is due to judicious selection and clear arrangement, to enlarged knowlege and nice discernment, to criticism which exposes error and absurdity, and to genius which points out the road to new truths, must be participated by the author of the present work. Few have sufficient comprehension of knowlege for all that M. PRONY has written: yet whoever consults his book, for information on any particular subject which it discusses, will not turn from it unsatisfied; nor complain that, to the ambition of variety and extent of matter, the author has sacrificed the nicety of detail, the rigor of proof, or the curious discussion of fundamental propositions.

ART.

ART. II. Histoire de Pierre III. Empereur de Russie, &c. i. e. The History of Peter the Third, Emperor of Russia, printed from a MS. found among the Papers of M.Montmorin, formerly Minister for the Department of Foreign Affairs, and composed by a secret Agent of Lewis XV. at the Court of Petersburg; with import ant Illustrations and Additions. To which is added, the Private History of the Amours and the principal Lovers of Catharine II. By the Author of the Life of Frederick II. King of Prussia. With Copper-Plates. 3 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1799.

THIS work is ostentatiously announced to the public, as very different from those compilations which are hastily put together on the death of some great personage; and it is declared to be the collection of the observations of a man of talents and distinction, secretly kept by Lewis XV. at the court of Petersburg, for the purpose of satisfying his curiosity respecting the private intrigues of that court: but its claims to historical excellence are so immaterial, that it might have been suffered to pass among the generality of those performances which are here mentioned with so much scorn. If by the Author of the Life of Frederick II.' be meant the Abbé Denina, we should as soon suppose to be the production of some hot-brained democrat, inspired from his grenier in Paris to blacken the character of the late Empress of Russia, to the honour and glory of sacred Jacobinism. Indeed, a much better work than this might have been compiled under the same title by some industrious bookmaker, from the materials already published, without the trouble of a journey to Petersburg, or even descending from

his "watch-tower in the skies."

We shall here see (says this lofty writer) this great empress, so highly extolled by authors of the greatest celebrity, degrading herself to the vilest intrigues, becoming the miserable tool of her gallants, submitting to their most humiliating insults, and abandoning herself to the most infamous libertinism. We shall behold almost all the sovereigns of Europe basely cringing at the feet of her contemptible favourites, granting them the most distinguished favours, decorating them with those brilliant ribbons which they themselves took pride in wearing, and thus assimilating those heroes of the toilette with their boasted ancestors, with themselves, and with the noblest branches of their family. Lastly, we shall here see bloody wars undertaken, whole provinces overthrown, races of people torn from their country, thousands of men cut to pieces, or reduced to misery and despair, to satisfy the inordinate ambition of a base and worthless adventurer, repulsed in disgust from the bed of Catharine, forming a plot to dethrone her, and wretchedly dying at last, poisoned by the orders of his mistress.'

The introduction consists of a laboured comparison between. the Emperors Claudius and Peter III.; in which, if the two

13

portraits

portraits be not as like as they can stare, it is not from any ne glect in the painter, who has made the resemblance as complete as he could."

Our countryman, Mr. Coxe, is very roughly treated by this panegyrist of Peter III. for having imputed weakness and debauchery to that unfortunate prince. However, he has occasionally dipped into respectable sources, though without naming them, for several of the historical facts which he relates. Speaking of the origin of Orlof, he says:

His grandfather, an accomplice in a tebellion which threatened both the monarch and the state, was condemned to lose his head in 1698. The trunk of a tree served as a block on this occasion, but the whole length of it was already covered with the heads and the bodies of a row of Strelitzes, whom the tzar had decapitated with his own hand. Orlof's turn being come for laying his neck on the tree, and not finding room, he put away with his hands the heads of his com rades, saying, Paditè proch mné, miesta niet; " Away with you, and make room for me." The tzar, or beholding this act of firmness, or of insensibility, suspended the axe, and gave him his pardor. Such is the origin of the three brothers Orlof*, who afterward played such a conspicuous part in Russia,' &c.

This anecdote stands here unsupported by any authority: but, whether the writer knew it or not, it is probably derived from a book now extremely scarce, entitled Diarium itineris in Moscoviam D. de Guarient & Rall, ab imperatore Leopoldo I ad tzarum Petrum Alexiovitchium ablegati extraordinarii, descriptum à Joanne Georgio Korb, secretario ablegationis Cæsaria." Vienna, Austria; in fol. This work contains the particulars of the tortures and punishments to which the rebellious Strelitzes were condemned. As, on this occasion, the justice of the tzar was carried to the excess of cruelty, the court of Vienna, in tenderness to that monarch, caused all the copies of this book, which were not immediately sold, to be suppressed. It is enriched with several copper-plates, at the sight of which the heart of the spectator sickens.-Whence our author obtained the following anecdote, it is not so easy to conjecture: When Peter II. had resolved to march against Denmark for the recovery of the territory of Holstein, he said to Marshal · Razumofsky, hetman of the kozaks, "I have made choice of you to accompany me, and shall give you the command of the army" If that be the case, (returned the Marshal,) I shall take the liberty of giving your majesty a piece of advice.”— Well, what advice?"" To form two armies instead of

The ancestor's name was Adler, à German, which word, g, is in Russ, Orch, Orlova, Orlof

one."

one."-"Why so?"-"Because, on so difficult an enter prise, it will be necessary to have one behind that which I shall command, to drive it on." The emperor laughed heartily at this reply, which he took as a joke of the marshal, who had never appeared at the head of a body of troops; and yet,' continues our author, the observation was founded in truth. It is well known that the Russian soldiers are excellent troops; machines of passive obedience, who move at the word of command, scarcely ever retreat, and suffer theinselves to be killed. through fanaticism :-but their officers are in general the most dastardly in Europe. It is likewise well known, that, from one extremity to the other of this vast empire, containing a million of square leagues in superficies, all who are not in a military dress tremble, fly, or sue for mercy at the sight of an uniform.' As to the bravery of the officers, the weapons of our warfare being of another kind, we shall leave the vindication of it to the swords of Marshal Suvorof Rymnikski, and his countrymen in arms. One assertion, however, we shall venture to contradict, concerning a transaction in which, as the author pretends to have been concerned, we might have reasonably expected a greater degree of accuracy.

An anonymous author, M. D. G (he says) and M. de la Marche, drew up their account of the fall of Peter III. from the Manifestes Outrageans de Catherine, and from the memorial which she published as the pretended justification of her conduct, and of the murder of her husband.

This memoir was composed by a Frenchman, named de Villiers, who went to Russia after having been struck off the list of advocates of Paris. General Betski, with whom I was intimately connected in Friendship, proposed to me at the time to compose this apologetical memoir, and neglected no means for obtaining my consent: I refused his offers, saying to him," General, you are very friendly to me, and you have shewn me marks of your esteem: but my pen shall never be venal, and I have not the art of disguising the truth: neither prudence nor my delicacy will allow me to accept of this commission."

On this refusal, application was made to M. de Villiers, who drew up the memoir from an outline sketched by the hand of the Empress; I saw it at first, I read it afterward, and I can assert that this piece is the oraison funèbre de la modestie de Catherine.

Now what will the reader think of the modesty of this writer, when he is told that the memoir in question is dated July 6, 1762*; and that M. de Villiers did not come to Russia till af. ter the unfortunate death of Dr. John Brown, in 1766†,

* See Tooke's Life of Catharine II. vol. i. Appendix, p. 540. 3d edit. See Biographia Britannica; article Brown [Dr. John].

to

to supply the place intended for whom, M. de V. was invited

over.

We now meet with an extract of not fewer than a dozen pages from Mr. Coxe's travels, which the writer calls a réchauffé historique.

We thought that it might be possible to find, in some part of the third volume, (which relates the amours of Catharine,) a passage or two to have extracted, as affording either information or entertainment; but, after a careful perusal, nothing appears besides what is too gross or otherwise too contemptible for insertion. On the whole, the former part of the first volume may possibly be taken from the papers of some ill-informed and incompetent reporter, who perhaps was at Petersburg during the time of the revolution in 1762: but all the rest is a coarse manufacture from works already before the public, interspersed with anecdotes void of foundation, and observations destitute of common sense.

With regard to the embellishments, which are neatly engraved, the frontispiece to the first volume is inscribed Peter III. assassinated by the orders of his wife Catharine II. The scene is passing in a strong vaulted dungeon; whereas every body knows that Ropscha, where Peter III. met with his death, was a small wooden hunting-box, a few versts from Oranienbaum, afterward converted into a linen bleachery, and since entirely demolished. The chamber was not very large, being only about 30 feet by 20; and many people still remember the emperor's little iron bedstead, with green silk curtains in one corner, with his slippers, morning gown, &c. as they had last been used; and have taken particular notice of a mus ket-ball sticking in the beam which passed across the ceiling. The frontispiece to the second volume has under it, Pugatshef causes Charlof to be hanged in presence of his wife.' Here we have the magnificent edifices of a large town of Italy or France, with the costumes of no country on earth, to represent the interior of a miserable fort in the regions of the Ural.-The third and last decorations is, Catharine II. goes to visit Ptemkin in his hermitage. In this picture, the sudden exclamation of the prince, in a fit of the spleen, that he would turn monk, has ingeniously produced a cell with wooden chairs, death's head, a crucifix, sandals, rope-girdle, cowl, &c. are two ladies entering in grand neglige; all to embellish a story that never had even the slightest foundation in fact.

Акт.